Kodaline’s Five Best Tracks

Ahead of the Irish chart-toppers’ homecoming gig with Jameson at the Dublin Academy on March 16 – St Patrick’s Eve – we scour their catalogue for the finest cuts…

‘High Hopes’

Their first single and an Irish Number One, ‘High Hopes’ is Kodaline’s biggest hit for a reason – Steve Garrigan’s haunting vocals mingle with a backing choir of shimmering soul angels as the track builds from a desolate piano intro to the sort of chart-bursting finale designed to automatically set off every arena confetti cannon in a five mile radius.

‘Brand New Day’

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Their own ‘Born To Run’ – well, maybe ‘Born To Backpack’ – debut album ‘In A Perfect World’’s most precision-crafted pop song found Garrigan lobbing stones at a paramour’s window and urging them to run away around the world with him, seeking adventure. A classic escape anthem, although we’d recommend not following Garrigan’s advice on treasure-hunting in exotic foreign caves: “if we find gold, well, we’ll just throw it away”. Really, keep the gold.

‘All Comes Down’

‘In A Perfect World’ was heavy on billowing balladry, but ‘All Comes Down’ was the most soulful of the batch, a stirring electro-stomp that featured Garrigan giving it his best Al Green, bolstered by the arrival of a full-throated gospel choir for the big finish.

‘Coming Alive’

From the opening squelches of first single ‘Honest’, second album ‘Coming Up For Air’ saw the band branch further into synthetic textures and electronics, and the hyper-charged ‘Coming Alive’ was their most effervescent synth pop moment. Half Coldplay, half Killers, it was a rip-roaring reflection of romance hitting like a bolt from the blue.

‘All I Want’

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Fan favourite and Kodaline’s intimate gig closer, ‘All I Want’ is the band’s most tender moment – Garrigan’s voice cracks under the strain of a devastating split – and their biggest wail-along anthem, largely thanks to Mark Prendergrast’s nimbus-pop guitar work at the climax.

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